So Much Dizzy, Head is Spinning!
A whole bunch of news and information about the upcoming Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk has been released, new screenshots, trailer and even an FAQ is available for your visual consumption, so sit back and relax to take it all in!
Trailer info:
The new video shows the classic cartoon eggventurer exploring the magical kingdom of Keldor in this faithful remake of Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk. Our hard boiled hero is shown in eggsplosive action as he helps lions, eggs-changes items with the Grim Reaper and, crucially, scares Rockwart the Troll. Using his trademark jumps and tumbles, Dizzy displays eggstraordinary agility as he vaults his way through tree tops, crosses the river Styx and rides platforms through a castle. To help him on his scramble to save the Yolkfolk and rescue his girlfriend Daisy, Dizzy can collect and use items – from matches to axes and buckets of water. It’s all in a day’s work for the fry-hard hero.
What is Dizzy?
Dizzy is… well, WAS, Europe’s favourite game star back in the late 80s/early 90s in a series of games published by Codemasters for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and later the Atari ST, Amiga, PC and NES and MegaDrive/Genesis consoles. The first Dizzy games were designed and written by Philip and Andrew Oliver and later by Big Red Software. Dizzy games were published as standalone budget titles (£3.99) and in compilation packs. He was designed to be the main character in an arcade adventure puzzler in which players explore a 2D world made up of single screens, collecting and using objects to solve puzzles.
He’s an egg, right?
Eggsactly, Dizzy is an egg. More by luck than judgement (see ‘Why an Egg?’ below), an egg who’s in for a lot of eggcitement and eggsasperation in this iOS/Android eggdaptation of the eggcellent arcade eggventure. He wears red boxing gloves and boots and somersaults around his world in order to rescue his friends, the Yolkfolk, from danger.
And he’s back?
Yup, you can’t have une-oeuf of Dizzy. The iOS/Android Dizzy game is a recreation of “Dizzy: Prince of the YolkFolk”, first published in December 1991. The game is the sixth game in the Dizzy series and perhaps the most critically acclaimed for its tight design. The Dizzy adventure game series: Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy World Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Dizzy: Prince of the YolkFolk, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy and The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy/Fantastic Dizzy (1994).
Why an egg?
It’s quite eggstraordinary, before Dizzy, Codemasters and The Oliver Twins were mainly producing action games, including Robin Hood (a fun platform jape), which was followed up by Ghost Hunters. The main characters in both games were men, but the designers were fed up of drawing and animating people, so tried something else. Philip drew up this egg-shaped blob with arms and legs and thought: ‘Dizzy’! And that’s how he was born.
Are there any other characters besides Dizzy?
Dizzy is joined by his chums called the Yolkfolk but their antics usually end up causing no end of trouble (especially when Evil Wizard Zaks is involved).
Dizzy started off life as just another member of the Yolkfolk, but once he made friends with the good wizard Theodore, his life began to change dramatically. All his life Dizzy had lived in the treehouse village in the Enchanted Forest near the city of Keldor. High above the forest lives the Evil Wizard Zaks who, along with his army of trolls, began by doing little annoying things like making it rain every Sunday during the Yolkfolk cricket match, but went on to do really horrid things like blasting people with magic firestars until their eyes burned out. Dizzy made it his ambition to get rid of Zaks. Since then he’s been catapulted through a series of weird adventures, on a desert island, in a Fantasy World, in Magicland, in the Underworld beneath the Forest, lost near a castle in the Forest itself, and all around the kingdom of Zakeria. Dizzy is now Zaks’ bitter enemy, and will stop at nothing to rid the world of his influence.
Daisy: Ah, the endlessly-captured Daisy. Head cheerleader and Dizzy’s girlfriend. For the latter reason, Zaks prefers her as a target for his wrath, as Dizzy always tries to rescue her, often leading himself right into Zaks’ hands. So far Dizzy has been lucky enough to evade capture – or worse – by doing away with Zaks some way or other. Daisy always tries to see the good side to every situation – and every person. She still insists that somewhere deep-down inside Zaks is a Theodore trying to get out. She wants to try and coax it out, which is why Zaks has little problem capturing her.
Pogie The Fluffle: He’s a Fluffle, a deceptively cute fluffy creature and lives in his own kennel by Dizzy’s treehouse. No one is quite sure what Pogie keeps in his kennel but he’s always running in and out carrying treasure and the like. Pogie likes nothing more than berries, especially fluffberries. Pogie to sometimes works as a lookout, protecting the entrance to the village from prying trollish eyes, and if he were ever to see a troll nearing the village, he knows the exact spot on a troll’s ankle which hurts the most.
The baddies…
Evil Wizard Zaks: The most evil of Dizzy’s foes – Wizard Zaks reigns havoc from his mysterious fortress in the sky: Castle Keldor. Zaks has a band of devilish followers who are under the spell of his black magic. Between them they lay traps for Dizzy’s friends, the Yolk Folk and hold them captive at Keldor knowing Dizzy will follow on a rescue mission. Zaks always hopes that with Dizzy in his fortress, he can wipe out our hero for ever.
Rockwart the Troll.
Rockwart is the strongest of the troll tribe. The trolls used to be really good friends with Dizzy and the Yolkfolk. But now Wizard Zaks has cast his black spell over the land, the trolls are under his power and form his army. With Rockwart leading them they can cause real damage. The only thing trolls are scared of is Fluffles. Pogie especially.
Is there an elaborate and sophisticated back story to this Dizzy adventure?
No, but it goes something like this…
Grand Dizzy was feeling very down one day, so Dizzy and Daisy decided to cheer him up by baking him his favourite food, cherry pie. So off went Daisy to get some cherries from her cupboard but there were none to be seen.
“Pogie’s pinched the cherries!” she cried, as she saw Pogie’s pawprint in the cupboard. “That darned fluffle. Come here you!” shouted Daisy as Pogie promptly darted off into the enchanted forest to escape Daisy’s rage.
Dizzy and Daisy headed into the forest to catch Pogie (and replenish their supply of cherries at the same time). However, while searching for Pogie they got lost and found a castle, where they thought they would find help, but it seemed deserted. They looked in the castle for Pogie, but Daisy caught herself on a mystic spinning wheel. She started feeling really sleepy, so she found a bed and went to sleep. “Wake up Daisy, wake up!” shouted Dizzy. But before he could wake her up, Rockwart the troll caught him and locked him up underground…
Who worked on the original Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk?
The game was designed and developed by Big Red Software. The game’s project director was Paul Ranson. Paul is now development director at DNA Dynamics, the developer of the iOS/Android edition.
Did Dizzy ever make an appearance in the US?
The only Dizzy game released in North America was his final game: The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy for Nintendo Entertainment System and Mega Drive/Genesis.
